Bearing the Standard

I turned these around pretty quickly once I actually started painting.  The figs were assembled in September, then waited patiently and got painted over the Holidays.

And the finished product.

As with the other heroes, I did not use dip.  I used traditional fast shading (blending with washes and highlights).  Results are table-top ready, even if they may not win any awards.

Next up for the waaagh:  Trolls!  I love big based infantry for their imposing look on the table and the great sculpts.  Trolls will get the dip treatment.

Gadagutz Victorious!

Gadagutz Sharptusk had a second chance at victory, this time against the Vampire Counts.  Without going into a detailed play by play, here are some highlights of the glorious (mini)Waagh..

The vampire attacked early at dawn leading a skeleton block supported by black knights and a black coach.  Gadagutz and his Orks were looting a farmstead at the time with Madspittle's savage orks.  Evileye the shaman started in the center with Crusher and Regsnik's wolves on the right flank.

Regsnik advanced, shot some arrows and then fled from a charge by the coach and unfortunately his fear of the undead carried him straight off the table.

The two lines advanced and met in the middle.  Madspittle was swiftly diced by the vampire, but not before his savage orks cut through a swath of skeletons.  Gadagutz and his crew absorbed a charge from the black knights and then proceed to methodically cut them to shreds.  Within a couple of rounds, the knights and the savage orks were out of the picture.

This battle would be settled by the heroes themselves.

Gadagutz and his lads stormed into the skeleton block and the two mighty champions locked in a mortal duel.  Both heroes suffered grave wounds, but at the end, saved by a lucky parry from his massive ork shield, Gadagutz cut the vampire down and the army of the dead began to crumble.

As the sun peaked over the horizon, all that remained standing were orks, looting through the remains of the walking dead.

Great game.  Again, orks prove that they can hit hard.  Savage Big 'uns on the first turn can put out a large number of S5 hits!  Crusher the stone thrower was reliable this time, but unfortunately the coach made all of its ward saves.

Next up, the battle standard bearer.  With two of my units fleeing off the table, it's clear I need some morale boosting..

Gadagutz Sharptusk Gets Stomped by Elves.. oh the shame..

My mighty little Waagh went on their first stomping run and things did not go as Gadagutz boasted they would by the campfire on the previous night.

With this being a 1000 points only, we played on a smaller table but  ended up with a lot of interesting terrain, which played a big role in how the game played out.

I deployed with a balanced line, Madspittle's Savage Orcs on the left, Gadagutz in the center with the Boyz, Regsnik's wolves on the right and the Crusher lobber in the back.  Evileye the shaman hung around behind the lines.

The elves had an eagle on their right, two cohorts of 10 Swordmasters and a solid legion of Spears led by some stuck-up lord with his pet mage.

The terrain came up with some forests, a mysterious river, a hill, a Blazing Barricade in the center and a Hero's monument (stubborn within 6").

The elves were first to go.

Both lines advanced.  The elves discovered to their horror that the river was a Raging Torrent and a number of the spearmen floated down the stream..   The Orcs rushed forward.  Crusher lived up to its name and landed a direct hit on the swordmasters who then got peppered with rusty arrows by Regsnik's wolves.

A couple of rounds in.  The Madspittle's Savage Orcs took a pounding from magic, charged and obliterated the damaged swordmaster unit which was defending a Blazing Barricade.  The spears tried charging the wolves who fled and rallied behind the Orc lines.  Crusher misfired and was out for 2 turns.  And Gadagutz advanced down the middle.
One rule that I did not play correctly was forgetting to reform my Overrunning Savage Orcs.  This would leave them effectively out of the game but would not have changed the outcome.

The last moments..  Gadagutz's Boyz get triple charged.  Spears from the front, 10 Swordmasters from the flank and an Eagle from the rear.  Madspittle can only watch and reform as his comrades get diced.  The wolf riders are out of position as well and cannot enter the fray till it's much too late.  Over then next couple of phases, Swordmasters do what they do so well and mow through astounding numbers of the Orcs.  Gadagutz himself is brought down by 3 very accurate spear elves.  The only reason the fight lasts more than one combat phase is because the Terrain Monument keeps my Orcs stubborn regardless of ranks.

As the Orcs melt away under a flurry of swordmaster blows, Regsnik takes his wolves and goes looking for a new warband to join and Crusher gets abandoned by its cowardly goblin crew.

Overall I really enjoyed how the Orcs play.  I should have been more aggressive with my army and charged the larger, untouched swordmaster unit with the Savage Orcs.  The swordmasters were the key to this game.

Painting wise, I picked up a Battle Standard Bearer to anchor my lines.  I can't rely on that "always stubborn" monument in every game.

Gadagutz will be back...

The Waaagh of One Thousand!

And so my 1000 point Orc Army is complete. Gadagutz Sharptusk is pleased and ready to do some stompin'!

I would not have been able to complete this list without the Army Painter. For anyone worried about the time needed to create a full army, but still concerned about quality, it is the ultimate balance between fast(ish) and good(ish).

What's next for Gadagutz's lads? Hopefully a game or two so that I can figure out what to get next. Definitely need some Black Orcs for their punching force. Then maybe some chariots, or Trolls, or goblins, or, or, or....

Incoming!

The Rock Lobba is ready for Rock Lobbing.

I used the tired and true Army Painter Dip, but decided against dipping this time around and used a brush to paint on the wash. I have to say that worked better than dipping. With less excess wash, there is no need to fling the miniatures dry. Instead, I used a bit of paper towel to collect the excess dip and ended up with identical results and significantly less mess.

Load 'er up!

This is my first Fine Cast model and overall my experience has been positive. Sadly, I did not catch the un-primed version, but after assembly it looked much like standard plastic models.

There is a lot to like. The level of detail is high. The assembly was very fast because no pinning was needed. All of the pieces are light and bonded very well with modeling superglue.

There is a little to dislike. There is a lot of flash and it's easy to damage the model when removing it.

For the painting, it's back to dipping with Army Painter and simple, fast paint jobs. Let's get this show on the road!

Oi, Where's me lads?

The Black Orc Boss and a Goblin Shaman are ready to rock and roll. The shaman will stand in as a Night Goblin with this dark pain scheme.

No dipping applied for the heroes . All shading was done through layering and light washes. After all the fast-paint-dip grunts, it was a very satisfying diversion to hand shade these models. But I would not want to hand shade grunts. It's one thing to hand-blend one off figures, and quite another to hand blend 30 essentially identical figures.

Next up, the Rock Lobba! Orcs bring the rain.

Every Waaagh Needs a Hero!

The time has come to add some brains to the brawn of the troops. Well, brains may be overstating it.. let's just call it leadership.

A Black-Orc warboss and a Night Goblin Shaman will provide the needed heroic support to the army. For these two models, I will use traditional painting and shading techniques, which will be nice change from the dip method.

Howling at the Moon

The goblin riders are ready to go. Painting time was around 8 hours which nets me around 45 minutes per model. Still pretty good.

One thing I noticed with the dip is that down facing points accumulate extra drops of the dip. Most of the bows and the feet ended up with big globs of the dip at the tips and had to be touched-up with paint. Next time, I will remove the excess after shaking off with paper towel.

With this unit completed, troops are all done for the first 1000 points. All that's left now are characters and a rock lobber.

Calling in the Wolves!

Now that I have two solid blocks of infantry to form the line, I'm bringing in some fast cavalry to protect the flanks and harass artillery. Goblin wolf riders are perfect for this. Cheap, armed with bows, and guaranteed to flee in terror at the first sight of trouble.

They will get black primer, some base colours and dip per usual.

I'm trying something a little different for the riders. I've kept their pins long so that I can hold them while painting. The Goblins are not actually levitating above the wolves..

Mean Green Stabbin' Machine

First block of Savage orcs is done and done. Frenzy, Ferocity and Big Stabbin!

Green primer worked very well. It went on smoothly and kept the detail sharp. I don't have a perfect match for its shade of green and I ended using something that's close, but not quite right. Fortunately there were no big fixes to make that would stand out. For next time, I'll get the right green.

Painting time after priming: 10 hours. With 20 models that's 30 minutes per model. Just slightly better than the Orc Boyz. The primer really helped to get them going, but the detail on bones, leather ties, stone bits ate up a lot of time.

Final thoughts: I like how they turned out but the tan leather ties are too close to bone in colour and they blend in. On the bright side, the unit does look very "earthy" which is exactly what I wanted.

Next up: Goblin Wolf Riders. I now have two solid infantry blocks so it's time to add some speed to the mix. Go Orcs!!

Frenzy Up!

The Horde needs more orcs! But it's time to add a bit more ferocity, now that the core block is done. Bring in the Savage Boyz!. Starting unit of 20, 2nd HW and a Big Stabber. I will grow the unit to 30 eventually.

Painting Plan:

• Army Painter Greenskin primer.
• Bone, Brown, Tan, Red, Gray for base colours.
• Dip.

I will track time again. I'm curious about how well the green primer works.

Me Horde is Gettin' Bigger!

Eleven more Boyz joined the mob. And this time I came prepared with some hard painting time numbers.

All told, the unit took 6.5 hours to paint, starting from primed and finishing at varnished. I spent 4.5 hours on the base colours and 2 hours of touch-ups and dipping. That's just over 30 minutes per Orc!

I undercoated red and bone with white which reduced my shield coats to one plus touch-ups. Can't fake the red. And if you want to shake off the 4-man bases, you need thick nose pliers. The thin ones break the plastic. Noted for next time.

Final tip: use a rolled up paper towel scrap to wipe down excess dip. Some sections under the shields or between the head and neck can retain too much dip which does not look good.

Finished unit, all mobbed up and ready for some 'umies!

This Horde needs a lot more Orcs, so next up we've got some Savage Orcs with Two Hand weapons. Oi, git in line!

Oi, Let's stomp some 'umies!

First 19 Orcs are done. So far so good with Army Painter. Here's what I've learned so far:

• Time savings are substantial. No hard numbers but it felt like I painted the unit rather quickly.
• I accidentally double-dipped my test Orc. He came out a little darker, but nothing too noticeable. You would not be able to pick him out from the unit.
• The biggest time sink is getting good, even coverage of reds and bone. Shields took 4 coats of red. I will try white undercoat next time.
• Easiest mistake to make is missing details as you try to power through the models. I didn't hit the Standard Bearer's teeth with bone until I was about to dip him.
• Keeping the number of individual colours to a minimum really helps.

Next up I have 10 more Orcs and then.. we'll see.

The Waaagh of One!

This is my test Orc done with Army Painter. Keeping the scheme nice and simple. I like the results / Time ratio. Army Painter is definitely the way to go for hordes!

Next time, I'll have the unit done.

The beginning

The Warhammer Fantasy Battle Orc army project has begun!

I'm starting with choppa-boyz to keep things simple. The rest of the army will follow only after I have a solid infantry core established.

We will see how well Army Painter works.